


अरल

by askarella



Category: Batman (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: F/M, Overdosing, Past Rape/Non-con, Soulmates AU, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-28
Updated: 2014-06-28
Packaged: 2018-02-06 15:15:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1862538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/askarella/pseuds/askarella
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ficlet- AU where your soulmate's name is written on your wrist when you are born</p>
            </blockquote>





	अरल

Everyone is born with the name of their soulmate written on their wrist.

Bruce Wayne is six when he is told this, and of course his first response is to look down at his wrist and ask “What does mine say, Mother?”

   Martha Wayne only looks down at her son and ruffles his hair. “I don’t know, sweetheart- it’s not written in any language that I know.”

   Bruce sighs and looks down at his feet. “Oh… okay…” He rocks on his heels slowly. “So it can’t be the pretty girl in my class with the broken arm… her name is in English and even though she’s mean to me I like her a lot and I want to play with her hair”

Martha laughs and picks her son up into her arms and swings him around, making funny noises to distract him.

Across the city Angela Roth hides in her room while her Father searches for his Bible and begs God for a soulmate that will deliver her from her parents. Her wrists and covered in scabs and the remmnants of a B and a C and a W and a Y and a N can be seen.

  

* * *

Two years pass and Bruce Wayne is crying as his mother’s corpse drains blood into the gutter and his father’s corpse loses warmth. He begs the skies for help, and they answer in rain that washes away the stench of blood and Death.

   Angela Roth is in her kitchen, stealing a piece of bread from the counter because her parents did not feed her that night, and she curses her stomach’s need for food. She wants to bully her soulmate for more money so that she can make it through the month, so that she can buy food so that she can eat.

 

* * *

  Bruce Wayne is sixteen and training in India and he knows the name of his soulmate. “A-ra-la” is how it is pronounced, though “Arella” is more likely for it to be spelled. No one in India knows her, but it is an old name not used by the common folk- a name entrusted to a long-unworshipped Goddess of Pacifism. Bruce has since lost hope of meeting her.

   Angela Roth is seventeen and pregnant with a monster’s child. “Trigon” is the name of the monster, and she can still feel his fiery touch. Her hands are shivering as she brings the bottle of sleeping pills to her mouth- she hears a baby crying and she cries as she lets the bottle fall. She has long since given up hope of happy endings.

  

* * *

Bruce Wayne is thirty six when he sees the name on his wrist written down. “अरल”, written in gold on a cookie basket brought home from Titans Tower. He shakes his ward with the least force he can manage “Who gave those to you?!” He demands.

   “Arella,” Dick Grayson replies easily, as if it were obvious. “She’s Raven’s mother, and really awesome. Her accent is a lot like Raven’s- you know, like Russian mixed with Hindi-,” Dick continues happily, “But hers has an underlying Gotham Slums feel”

   Angela Roth- no, Arella- is thirty seven when Bruce Wayne comes back into her life. He runs to her, the silk of his suit wrinkling as his legs move, and she laughs as the images in his head enter hers, and slight tears at the joy he feels at their reunion.

   Arella’s tears mix with Bruce Wayne’s as they kiss, laughter erupting as they run out of breath. “It was you all along” He whispers to her reverently, “You, always you…”

   “Of course, you little crybaby,” She replies, their foreheads touching, “I love you, always.”


End file.
